The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - How Jayson Tatum & Celtics offense can ATTACK Luka Doncic & Mavericks

Episode Date: June 5, 2024

Jason Timpf breaks down how Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and the Boston Celtics' offense will attack Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving, and the Dallas Mavericks' defense during the NBA Finals. Jason breaks down film on how the Celtics can get Kristaps Porzingis involved in pick-and-pop action, Jayson Tatum's ability to attack Luka Doncic, and much more! Timeline (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements) 04:00 - Introduction 05:00 - Season series 09:00 - Porzingis pick and pop 19:45 - Attacking Luka 24:42 - Jayson Tatum can take over 27:12 - Keys for both teams #Volume #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter.

Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque.

Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, what's good, y'all? You're listening to Learn the Hard Way with your favorite therapist and host, Kear Games.

This space is about black men's experiences, having honest conversations that it's really not safe to have anywhere, but you're having them with a licensed professional who knows what he's doing. How many men carry a suit or armor? It signals to the world that you're not to be played with. And just because you have the capability that does not mean that you need to. Listen to learn the hard way on the AHA radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun, thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes.

Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far, far away, such as the biology of Tontons and Wampas on the ice planet, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith rule of two. Listen to stuff to blow your mind on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. The volume. We're this close to crowning a new NBA champ. And with the action heating up on the court, it's even hotter at Draft King Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NBA.

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amount of initial losing bet. Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance. See dkng.com slash B-Ball for eligibility, wagering, and deposit restrictions, terms, and responsible gaming resources. All right, welcome to Hoops and tonight here at the volume. Happy Monday, everybody. I hope all of you guys had a great weekend and then you're having a great start to your week. We are beginning our coverage of the NBA finals today, starting with focusing on Boston with the ball on offense. Tomorrow we're going to do the same thing with Dallas, with the ball on offense. We're going to film in both of those sessions. I've got 17 clips to go over with you guys today. We're going to go just through all of the Boston stuff in a monologue at the

start and then we'll get into the film at the end. And then Wednesday morning we have the nerd sesh guys coming on. And I'll probably have just like a shorter video that just kind of has my prediction and everything else just looking from 30,000 feet after we get done with the film sessions. You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel. So you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason. LT so you guys don't miss show announcements. Don't forget about our podcast fee, wherever you get your podcast on our hoops tonight,

and then keep dropping mailback questions in those YouTube comments so we can keep hitting them throughout the rest of this series and into the summer. All right, let's talk some basketball. So we're going to start from the series as a whole. Talk a little bit about the gambling odds as well as the season series and just what I noticed in film watching this morning. And then we'll focus in on Boston with the ball on offense.

According to Draft Kings, Boston is currently favorite at minus 210 to win the series. If you want to bet Dallas as the underdog, you can get them right now at plus 175. That is a substantial favorite, but easily the closest series that Boston has played to this point in terms of the gambling odds. The season series went 2-0 to Boston. Both games ended in blowout fashion. The closest one was probably the March 1st game, even though the final score was further apart. The game in Dallas, Boston led by a large margin throughout.

In the March 1st game in Boston, Dallas actually cut the score down to two in the third quarter, but Boston blew it open over the end of the third and into the fourth quarter. Main thing that stood out to me on film, Dallas just was really bad defensively in that game. It's kind of weird going back and watching a bad version of this Dallas defense because they've been good for a really long time. This was in that stretch when they went on that East Coast road trip and they got shredded. Those of you guys who followed this show during the regular season will remember me talking about how that was like a big opportunity for them to demonstrate that with their new personnel they got at the trade deadline that they could defend, and it just didn't go well.

They got shredded in that entire road trip. As a matter of fact, in the month surrounding that game, so that game was on March 1st. If you go from February 15th to March 15th, Dallas was 29th in defense over that span. So basically just a completely different type of team now than what they were when they face Boston in the regular season. Now, to be clear, Boston presents some real issues for this Dallas defense. and very different issues than what Minnesota presented, right? So, like, I do think that Boston will have success against this Dallas defense.

I just think it'll look a lot more challenging than it looked during the regular season. So metrics, Boston had a 129 offensive rating in the two matchups. They shot a 64% true shooting percentage, shot jump shots really well in both games, especially in the March 1st game. They had a 1.33 points per jump shot stat out of that game. 1.1 in the January 22nd game. So the shot well, both games.

Main play type data that was fascinating to me, was their ability to attack Dallas in the post. They posted them up 18 times total in the two games. They got 1.43 points per possession in the January 22nd game. 1.36 in the March 1st game. Those are two excellent numbers. And so that, especially when we started talking about the ball screen defense and defending Porzingis,

them being able to hold up in switches in the post is going to be a huge part of their defensive success. in this series. As far as matchups go, in the March 1st matchup, Dallas had Josh Green in the starting lineup still. And they use Josh Green on Tatum, PJ Washington on Jalen Brown. My guess is they'll start the same way,

but with Derek Jones in for Josh Green. So I think they'll start with Derek Jones on Tatum and PJ Washington on Jalen Brown. But I do think we'll see some switching there. I shouldn't say switching, but I think we'll see them move those matchups around a little bit. Specifically because if Jalen Brown just starts having success beating PJ Washington

off the dribble, he's not as laterally quick as Derek Jones. And since Tatum has a tendency to settle for pull-up jumpers and PJ Washington is a little bit taller, I wouldn't be surprised if we see them move those matchups around a little bit. But I do think they'll start with Derek Jones on Tatum, especially with their intent on trying to at least attempt to run drop coverage with Porzingis,

which we'll get to in a little bit. But again, I expect Derek Jones to start on Tatum, PJ Washington, Brown. They might move that around. Kyrie will guard Derek White. Luca Donchich, most likely on Drew Holiday. and Gafford Lively on Christop's Porzingis. I want to start in terms of actions, because we're going to get into, I basically am going to focus in on three different concepts in this,

in this offensive breakdown. Porzingis in ball screens, Porzingis off the ball, and the issues that that presents, and then any sort of action involving Tatum probably geared towards attacking Luca Donchich. That's what we're going to be focusing in on today. Now, I want to start with the Porzingis pick and pop. And to get my best feel as to how Dallas was going to cover this, I went not just to the regular season,

but also to the Oklahoma City Thunder series. Because with Chet Holmgren, they presented a similar issue, and they defended it really well. And I wanted to look into some of the specific ways that they did that. Now, to be clear, before we get into the specifics, Chet is just not as good at three-point shooter as Christops Porzingas. He was six for 27 from three in that series. That's 22%.

On wide-open threes, when the defender was at least six feet away, he was three for 12. So obviously Porzingis is a better shooter, so it's going to be a little bit more of a challenge. But schematically, it's a similar type of problem with his willingness to pop. Also, one thing with Chet, he rolled a lot more. Porzengis does roll,

but Chet did a lot of slipping and rolling in that series. And so the pick and pop wasn't as much of a threat because they just didn't go to it as much. Now, I want to start with the lively matchup. Lively, I think they'll switch with any sort of action involving Porzinger. I think they'll just switch. Mainly because Lively does really well on switches.

He's defended 14 ISOs in switches in this postseason run, and he's allowed just four made field goals. Opponents have shot 36% against him, and they're getting just 0.79 points per possession in those ISOs against Derek Lively. So he just holds up really well on switches. And I think that, and I'll show you guys some examples on film of him holding up in switches against

Jaylen Brown and against Drew Holiday. Like, that to me is where he has a unique, capability to allow them to kind of shut down the Porzenghis pick and pop by just simply switching. But there's two things that can arise as an issue for Dallas on the other side of that. I don't worry about lively on the switch. I think he can defend out there about as well as anybody else on the perimeter. So like I don't think he's going to have issues. The main issue is you're taking a Derek Jones Jr. or a PJ Washington or one of the guards

and you're moving him on to Chris Ops Porzingis who will look to immediately attack in the post. in the one game that Porzingis played against Dallas this year, posted up five times and scored on three of them for seven points. That's 1.4 points per possession. That's really good, right? So, like, they will look to attack on the other side of that action. The other thing is, and this is not just for Porzingus, this is really for all of the actions.

Boston does slip out of screens really well, especially with Tatum, where he'll set a screen, he'll just kind of slip out to like the elbow and then catch and he'll run a four on three. I wouldn't be surprised, too, if we see some of that with with Porzingis where he kind of rolls into like the 15 foot area slipping out of those screens. The main reason why is a lot of the times they will switch with lively, but it starts as a drop. So it's like the guy on the ball chases over the top, lively catches the offensive player and just kind of switches.

And then that guy will peel off back to the screener. But when that happens, if he's chasing and the screener slips, he's now in trail position. He's on his top side in Porzingis or whoever it is that slips out of that. action is now has the inside position towards the rim, which can cause problems where they don't even need a post up. You're just bringing a defender over and help or he's getting a dunk, right? So I think we'll see a lot of slipping from Boston and then looking to go back to Porzingis in the post. One of the counters that we might see for that is I wouldn't be surprised if we see Dallas go a bit bigger. I wouldn't be surprised if we see some Klieba. I think we're going to see a lot

of Klieba in general, but I wouldn't be surprised if we see some Klieba and lively together. because if they have Kleba and Lively out there together, they can switch and also maintain their ability to defend in the post. So like a Tatum Porzingis two-man game with Kleba on Porzingis and PJ Washington on Tatum, you can just switch that and then not have to worry necessarily about dealing with Porzingis looking to attack in the post, right? So like I think we might see some bigger lineups. Also that's still even in the situation where you run a guard action. So like let's say for instance, Kleba's on Porzingis, but now you bring Tatum up into the screen with PJ Washington and they switch and all of a sudden Tatum has a smaller defender on him or Porzingis gets a guard on him and he's looking to post a guard. You have more size on the floor in general so that if Derek Lively gets pulled out to the perimeter on a switch, you just have more big bodies under the rim to help and recover or to clean up the defensive glass.

So I think we'll see some bigger versions of Dallas in this series. And we did see a Gafford-Kleba lineup in the, I think it was in the March 1st game, if I remember correctly, but they did go to a big lineup during the season. But switching with Lively, switching with Kleba. Gafford, they run more drop and then just try to have him close out. The main reason why there is just Gafford's best trait on, like Gafford's strength, what separates him from the other frontline players for Dallas,

is Gafford is a great rim protector, right? But his rim protection is a little less valuable in this series because Boston is shooting bigs and they space the floor. So it's actually more important for them to get mobility in space from the five spot in this series. So I think in general, we're going to see more Kleba and lively just because that's what's going to be more fitting for this matchup. But when Gafford's on the floor,

judging by what we saw in the Oklahoma City series, they will have Gafford operate in a drop with the defender. chasing over the top, and then he'll just try to close out to the three-point line to offer a late contest. If Portsinga starts hitting, I think we'll see some rotations from the weak side. There's a clip that I'll show you guys where in the Oklahoma City series where PJ Washington was guarding Shay on the left wing, there was a ball screen. I think J. Dub was running the action. Chet popped, and instead of Gafford closing out, they just had PJ Washington slide over and contest, and then they rotated on the backside. So I think we'll see some stuff like that, but I do think over the course of

this series, we'll see less Gafford. and I wouldn't be surprised if before the end of the series, we actually see Derek lively start a game in this series. But again, the main concern there with the pick and pop with Porzingis is he will pop above the break and he's willing to shoot out by like 26, 27 feet. And so even when you offer those closeouts, it's just a different challenge than what it was with Chet Holmgren. One last thing on Porzingis, this is Porzingis in help when he's in spot-up situations.

So Boston's going to look to attack Luca, and we're going to get into some more specifics with that later. But I wouldn't be surprised if the majority of Boston's action actually doesn't involve Porzingis. I wouldn't be surprised if it's a lot of like Tatum White two-man game or Holiday Brown two-man game looking to attack Luca Donchich or looking to attack Kyrie Irving. When they get those switches or whenever they get a matchup that they like, or if they do get a slip cut or something that breaks open on the backside, that is where Porzingis, to me, becomes an even bigger problem for Dallas. Because there are situations where, and I'll show you an example on film,

where Derek Lively's in position to step over and help on a Jalen Brown driving layup out of the right corner, but he doesn't because he's scared of Porzingis spotting up on the right wing who he would have to leave open in order to offer help. He doesn't help. Jalen Brown gets in and gets a layup. And so that to me is the bigger Porzingis issue, is just is Lively going to be able to help on the back line. Is Gafford going to be able to help on the back line when he's going to have to be closer to a deadly shooter 25, 26 feet away from the basket? That's one of the big differences, too,

with Porzingis above the break. When you have a guy who likes taking corner threes, that's a pretty standard rotation. You sit kind of in the dunker spot and you can step in and help if you want to be the low man that's tagging a roller or helping on a drive, but you can also close out to the three point line. As soon as he's out above the break, not only is he further away from the basket, but it's just a non-traditional help position because now when you're in help side, you're kind of up at the elbow as opposed to down underneath the basket, right? So like, Porzing is just a huge pain in the ass to deal with. This is part of what it comes with dealing with Boston, right? As I've said so many times, I think this is the most talented roster in the

league. They have four guys who make over 30 million. If they were all free agents tomorrow, they'd all make over 30 million, all five starters, including Derek White, right? So like, this is just kind of like what happens when you play Boston. It's just everyone's really good and they put you in a lot of specific predicaments. But again, the pick and pop with Porzingis is going to be an issue, and Porzing is spotting up when they look to attack elsewhere is going to be an issue. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games.

Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days I'd put on 10 pounds, I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tapped Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people.

I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam Jek. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick it here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because of crack.

I'm down to talk about crack on day, but just so y'all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack, so I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now, so. Thank you for finishing that sentence. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah.

For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun, thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes. Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy. see far, far away, such as the biology of tontons and wampas on the ice planet hot, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith rule of two. Listen to stuff to bowl your mind on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your

podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care which I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined.

And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger.

So, if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Attacking Luca, Boston will go out of their way to do it. We saw this in the Pacer's series. I think it was game one, but it was one of the first two games of the series. There was a sequence where Tyrese Halliburton was getting attacked relentlessly by Boston. And there was a basic sequence where Derek White had the ball. Tyrese Halliburton was guarding him.

And they had Tyreseoth chase over the top. And Neesmith was guarding Tatum, who was the screener. Tatum's at the screen. Tatum popped to the top of the key. Neesmith tried to corral to corral Derek White on the drive. And because he had to corral because Tyrus Halliburton was chasing and in trail position, Derek White just threw a simple kickback pass to Tatum. Neesmith tried to close out, but Tatum beat him off the dribble and he got to dunk.

So then on the very next possession, knee Smith was like hesitant to help. And so when Halliburton chased over the top and he was in trail position, Neesmith wasn't there. So Derek White just went all the way to the rim and got an easy layup. Boston was relentless going at Halliburton every single time in those first two games before he left the series with a hamstring injury. I expect them to do the same with primarily, Luca, but also with Kyrie.

And it serves two functions, right? One, to get a favorable matchup or to get the defense in rotation. And two, to try to fatigue Luca, who obviously has a lot in the way of offensive responsibility on the other end of the floor. Now, Dallas will guard it differently. One of the things that Indiana did with Halliburton was they would have him chase over the top against the ball handler. They would have him hedge and recover as the on ball or as the screen defender.

So like if he was, if they used Derek White to set a screen, they'd have Tyrese like step out and hedge and then try to get back into the passing lane. Remember, he got a couple steals like that in game one, just like slipping out of those hedges and jumping into the passing lane. But because Tyrese was fast, they like to have him do fast things to try to protect himself, right? Dallas will look to protect Luca in a very different way. Primarily with Luca, they'll just switch and then try to double him out of those particular situations. One of the problems for Dallas is they can't afford to just let Luca sit in play ISO defense, even if he's okay at it,

because they desperately need him to be great on the offensive end of the four. This is not like the Clipper series where Luca can defend on an island, but both teams are struggling to score because it's a defensive slug fest, and you're not worried about Paul George and James Harden killing you to some great extent, and you're okay winning a rock fight. Boston's too skilled offensively. I don't think it's going to be that much of a rock fight. I think this is going to be a pretty high scoring series. And so I think you need Luca to be awesome offensively, and you need to try to protect his legs as much as possible.

So let's talk about a couple of specific ways that Boston will look to attack Luca, right? If Drew Holiday is the matchup, if Luke is guarding Drew, we're going to look at it through two different functions, right? Drew on the ball, Drew as the screener. If Drew is on the ball, I think they'll just switch the action. Right. So if it's Tatum that sets the screen, that ends up with Luca on Tatum, right? Now, you're not going to be looking to have Lucas sit and guard Tatum on an island. You're probably going to double team him and rotate out of it because you want to save Lucas legs, right? And you can't do what you did against Minnesota or you have Gafford and Lively just parked in the paint so that even if Anthony Edwards beats Luke off the dribble, he's just driving into rim protection.

That's not the luxury you have in this series. You have to contain on the perimeter, right? So my guess is they'll double and rotate out of it. What's the problem there? Now Boston has you in rotation with five shooters on the floor. That can be a problem. If Drew is the screener, I think Luca will just switch out on the ball, right? So if Drew's on the ball and Luca switches on to Tatum, they'll just pass it back to Tatum.

But if Luca is the screener, he's switched on to Jason Tatum. Now he's just on the ball. It's the exact same predicament. and if you double team, once again, the defense is in rotation. So, like, no matter what, I think you're just going to end up in this situation where attacking Luca is just going to get the defense in rotation and Boston's going to be playing driving kick out of that all series long. I'm going to talk about this more at the end, but most of this comes down to me for Dallas,

defensive rotations. They are going to be in rotation a lot and so so much is going to come down to how well are they closing out? How well are they chasing guys off the line? They've been pretty good. They were the best among the conference finalist teams in defending teams on spot-up possessions. It's something that they are good at it. They are athletic and they get out to the perimeter.

They close out well. But that's going to be a huge factor in this particular series. To me, the Luca attacking mostly comes down to the fatigue battle. Boston is going to be trying to wear Luca out and Dallas is going to be trying to make Luca's job easier so that he doesn't get worn out. Last piece I want to look at is just Jason Tatum as the offensive initiator for Boston. Again, Josh Green got the assignment in the March 1st game, and Tatum just torched him. He was too small to handle Tatum.

There was a sequence of possessions in the second quarter where he just literally looked to attack Josh Green every single time down the floor. He went on like a 9-0 run by himself, just attacking Josh Green out of like the right elbow in straight ISO and post-up situations. Now, Derek Jones Jr. is not as strong as Josh Green, but he is longer and better at contesting those pull-up jump shots. I actually think he's just a better matchup for Tatum in general. in terms of having the length to actually contest those shots.

My main concern for Dallas with Tatum is actually just Tatum as a passer. Tatum's not shooting well in this postseason run. He's at 0.82 points per pull-up jumper, that's bad. 0.9 points per catch and shoot jumper, that's bad. He's 7 for 33 on face-up jumpers, 0.52 points per shot. That's really bad. So, like, Tatum's jumper just isn't there right now. And if it comes back in a big way in the series, Boston's just going to win.

Like, forget about it. Boston's winning if Tatum shoots well, but he hasn't been shooting well. That said, Dallas has entry points that Tatum can look to exploit to easily get the defense and rotation. Again, any action involving Tatum and Luca is likely to end with the defense and rotation for the same reasons that I just broke down for you guys, right? Like, anytime Tatum has the ball and brings Luca into the screen, Lucas is probably going to switch. They're going to double. You'll be in rotation. And if Luca, if Tatum sets the screen, switch on a Tating, throw the ball back to Tatum, now you're in

rotation anyway, right? So I think that's going to happen pretty consistently. But Tatum has the size to make passes out of that. He is, in my opinion, one of the best passing forwards in the league. It's one of the most underrated traits about his game. He's incredible defensively, and he's incredible as a playmaker. The primary concerns with Tatum involved his ability consistently get to his spots and make shots, right? Like, for him, it's his inconsistency as a score that has held him back. But his playmaking is something that I think is underrated. And so I'm worried about for Dallas, just Tatum functioning as like this glue guy offensively that just consistently runs a basic action at the beginning of a possession to get the

defense in rotation. And suddenly it's Derek White, Drew Holiday, Jalen Brown and Christops Sporzingis running four on threes, and just torching them. That's my main concern with Tatum. So again, this series to me comes down to rotations for Dallas. They have to do a really good job flying around and chasing guys off the three-point line. It's doable, but it's going to be a tough job. I don't hate the other matchups. Kyrie and PJ Washington are both guys that can guard on the perimeter. I'm really just worried about them operating with an advantage.

It's not PJ Washington guarding Jalen Brown with two guys dug down into driving lanes that I worry about. It's Jalen Brown catching on the left wing with PJ Washington closing out at him and him just getting easy buckets looking to attack quickly with that guy closing out, right? Keys for both teams with Boston on offense. For Boston, be deliberate about attacking Luca. If they let him guard on an island, you'll wear him out, not to mention you'll get great shots, but you'll wear him out, which will hurt him on the offensive end.

And most likely, you're just going to get the defense and rotation. In the March 1st game, they had 33 assists. They had 14 assists on their first 17 made field goals. They did a great job in that March 1st game, getting the ball bouncing around. Secondly, pushing in transition. You guys will see some examples in film. But anytime they got a transition cross-match,

it just made it so that Dallas couldn't run their actual defensive game plan, which ended up in problems. So just running up and down the floor, forcing Dallas into cross-matches will help them. And then again, get the ball reversal in every possession. Get the ball across the floor. Make it across the midline and make these guys defend closing out rather than loaded up.

Remember, Dallas is a load-up defense. That's what they did to Minnesota, and they weren't very good at getting the ball side-to-side. Boston has to get the ball side to side. On the Dallas front, protect Luca's legs. I would have him switch and then double out of every single one of those situations. That way he has no screen navigation and no hard closeouts. Just make his job super easy.

Because in my opinion, the best pathway for Dallas to win this series is for Luca to go absolutely supernova on offense. And to shake Boston's foundation, the way he shook Minnesota's foundation in game five. and then to lead Boston into their bad offensive stretches. As we know, Boston can lose sight of the goal and their execution on offense from time to time. Luca going supernova is a great way to play Boston into those tendencies. Lastly, I think they need to lean into Kleba and lively and then switch as much as possible. Again, more stagnation, less ball movement. Boston's ceiling is higher.

It just is. That's a fact. Going into the series, we know Boston, when they, play their best is better than anybody, right? But they're inconsistent in that level. And so you have to try to play them to the lower end of their variance. And the best way to do that is when they're stagnant, taking bad pull-up jump shots, and they're not just popping around in rotation, getting easy shots. And so it's going to be tough. But like the one guy you have to protect is Luca, but I would switch everybody else and leave them on an island and just force Boston to score. And then it's going to be

about Boston being deliberate to attack Luca and keep the defense and rotation as much as possible. Volume. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier.

This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games.

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